[Stress and nursing : study to evaluation the level of satisfaction in nurses]

Not unfrequently stress in nurses is related to work organization. The literature shows that the nursing profession has a high risk of psychological stress. Stress is one of the factors that contributes to inefficiency, increasing staff turnover and sick leave, and reduces the quality and quantity of care , affecting health costs and diminishing work satisfaction. This article presents the results of a study performed to evaluate 34 variables, constituting the Nursing Stress Scale (NSS) , and their level in the nursing staff of a Rome specialistic hospital. Of the 80 nurses who received the questionaire , 49 responded, a sufficient number to make the results of the study significant. The authors illustrate the methods used together with some socio-demographic considerations and how some of these can be correlated to the 7 factors adopted for multi-variate analysis. The results obtained were concordant with those described in the literature, confirming that poor organization and conflictual or ambiguous work roles negatively affect well-being and that nursing directors should bear this in mind when aiming to create a harmonious work environment.